Document kDMYBLxm4BLOw8B5pERj6monE

( G.E. Admits 65 Got Sick j ] From Exposure to P.C.B.j ! By RICHARD SCVEHO j I f * * I * * *041 T V '.'* T.S* T ttm | ALBANY, Nnv. 10--The Gen- sional cases cf chloncne or !enl Electric Company coneed* other minor skin irritations of ' ed today that at least 63 of t nonchronic`nature which dis-* conditions that "may have been.t,,e molojce to some otheri caused by or atxravited by;operation. , exposure to P.C.B.'s," or poly*.' Dr- Simons's testimony was: chlorinated biphenyls, i*ve,L 'n * beannp conducted! G.E. made the response in'"V le Federal environmental testimony that became public Protection Agency. Ihere during a hearing called In today's testimony--which by the State Department of.* prepared in advance end Environment! Conservation, represented the company's .offi* which has fi'ed a complaint ci*i position--Oeneral Electric against General Electric. refused a request from Philip The complaint alleges that H. Gillen, assistant counsel Tor the company violated water- the Department of Cnvironmen- quality standards of New York tal Conservation, to disclose by dumping PCB's from two the names, of employees who of its plants north of here had become ill. into the Hudson River. N. Earle Evans Jr., an attor* PCB's are used by General ney for G.E., said he thought *Electric in the manufacture of that such a disclosure would, capacitors at Tort Edward and violate the confidential nature Hudson Falls. !of rclalionshto between phvst* The comsany su'd that 49 cian and .patient. Mr. Gillen of about 1.S00 employees work- argued that such information' iinjt in area e::rsord to PCB's would be vital in determining had reported lo ii decennaries the cffr?t r.f rC3's op humans. i*'eor\oU'nin; nf *-'lrg*c dermi* The chemical in various forms litis," and added that 16 more 1*. ?. ricrumented tovc had reported nausea. Uir.riness. effect on laboratory animals, 'eye irritation, nasal irritation, cru'ins liter Hcmage. cancer asthmatic bronchitis and fun- and,/ massive reproductive, jus, faiUirer. . The testimony was in ap* Last August state researchers Iparent contradiction lo teitimo- reported they had found PCB's jnv given by Dr. r dvarr' T. ' HHi levels in Simons, a G.E. official in charge fish taken from the Hudson Riv-' lof ervirenmcntr.l -srpV--**. er. witli the result that Commit-' Iwho testified in Mav of 1774 sicnar Ogden R. Reid of the that "the only medira1 fieer v of Environmental 'that had Keen reported during Conservation warned eonum- the four decades we were u. ers to be-wary of the fish. -th is busiucs have hern -ccca- especially striped bass. Qm Z (. oo 773924 C-ft to ^4 U)